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Friday, August 7, 2009

Garden Surprises

I think for our first attempt at gardening we are doing pretty good. I was afraid that being gone so often would be a disadvantage, but I believe it has been a good thing. Every time we return home the garden is bigger and there are new things to see, and now to harvest as well.

When we came back from our last trip there were lots of changes in the garden. Everything was huge and there was lots of harvesting to be done.

the tomatoes are becoming a bit unruly and are starting to tip the cages over and are growing into one another

the squash plants are positively out of control and are beginning to reach rainforest-sized dimensions

the beans are gorgeous and were ready to pick

they are purple green beans that turn green when you cook ‘em

Pretty cool!

the peppers are finally taking off and we may get a good crop out of them yet

we are hoping for corn on the cob for summer BBQs and corn stalks for fall decorations

I am pretty sure that pickles are in our future

LOTS of pickles

carrots are kind of a fun surprise because you don’t know what they look like until you pull ‘em out

even our flowers are growing fast

the mint and chives are shooting up, too

the mint makes a lovely tea and I am hoping to make mint jelly for Christmas cookies

we harvested some cucumbers, squash and tomatoes

our bean crop so far (we are hoping to have a few more soon)

Will found the biggest one and measured it at almost 9 inches!

Andy and I also picked a bowl of big juicy blackberries from the back and I made a yummy blackberry cobbler for dessert. We ate the rest for breakfast this morning. Unfortunately we left the back gate open and this afternoon I found the mama deer in the garden having a feast on our beans! Arrrr! We chased her out but she ate quite a bit of both sets of beans. I also discovered that she ate every last one of our roses off the bush. I just hope she doesn’t decide it’s worth jumping the fence for another taste…